The aircraft themselves are likely to be hand-me-down A-321 jetliners from Air India which will then be structurally modified to carry a made-in-India radar developed by the Defence Research and Development Radar.
The DRDO radar will be a modernised variant of the existing active electronically steered array (AESA) radar installed on two Netra airborne warning aircraft already deployed by the IAF.
The Indian Air Force also operates 3 larger, A-50 EI aircraft procured from Russia which are fitted with the Israeli EL/W-2090 ‘Phalcon’ radar system.
An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a computer-controlled radar array in which radio beams can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the antenna. AESA radars are more accurate, more reliable and offer better detection capability when compared with legacy systems.